Exeter Chiefs benefit from World Rugby regulation as Wallabies lose star forward for All Blacks Test

Exeter Chiefs look set to benefit from World Rugby Test regulations in the coming weeks, with Wallabies star Tom Hooper primed to make his PREM return. 

The 25-year-old forward, who can play both lock and back-row, was not included in Australia’s 34-man squad for the upcoming Bledisloe Cup series against the All Blacks, with them sitting outside of World Rugby Regulation Nine.

After picking up a knock in July’s Nations Championship campaign, Hooper has again been involved in Les Kiss’ Test side and featured in their wins over both Argentina and the Springboks.

With Hooper no longer in the Wallabies camp, he is set to return to the English South West in the coming days, which could see him become available for the Chiefs too.

“Tom will be flying back next week, so he has the potential to feature against Newcastle (Red Bulls) next Sunday,” said Exeter director of rugby Rob Baxter. “He’ll come back during the week.”

But his return does not come without guardrails, with Hooper essentially now playing a 12-month season with his Southern Hemisphere Test commitments, and the Chiefs boss detailed the full plan to manage his workload across the year.

“When you have players over the 30-game limit, which Tom got to, we had to sit down and have a lot of communication with Les Kiss on how we were going to manage his (Hooper’s) programme over the next 12 months,” he said.

“That got negotiated between us, and I have to say Australia were fantastic in where they were prepared to give Tom some rest periods; and those actually increased after he picked up a shoulder injury.

“We put a process forward to PREM Rugby about how Tom would be managed, which included the rest we would give him and the rest Australia would give him. The reason Tom has been stood down is because these Tests are outside of Regulation Nine, and our agreement was that he’d have a break now, then come back in and be available for us and Australia in November; but have an extended break during the Six Nations period.

“He’ll almost have a full pre-season break then, so what we’ve really done is shifted his pre-season to a different time in the year, and that’s in agreement with Australia, PREM Rugby and ourselves.

“I think everyone’s been very good with the process, including Tom.”

Hooper was a stalwart in the Chiefs side in his maiden season at Sandy Park, making 23 appearances in all competitions and notably starting 22 of those. He also featured in their PREM Rugby final defeat to Northampton Saints.